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Mitsurugi Meiya
Mitsurugi Meiya is one of the main heroines in Muv-Luv, Muv-Luv Extra, and Muv-Luv Unlimited, as well as being one of the heroines in Muv-Luv Alternative. Like other Muv-Luv characters, she has made multiple appearances in other works by age. Extra During her childhood, Meiya made a promise to a boy that one day they would get married during the last visit she would make to the park in Hiiragi before she was slated to be adopted. After the tragic accident where both her parents and her older twin sister died, Meiya became the heiress of the overtly large and wealthy Mitsurugi Zaibatsu, in place of her deceased sister. As such, years later, she was to be engaged in a political marriage. However, Meiya did not want this and would have much rather marry someone that she loved. She made a deal with her grandfather, Mitsurugi Raiden, the current head of the Mitsurugi Zaibatsu, that if she could fulfill the two conditions of making the boy whom she played with in the park in her youth remember their promise on his own, and have him fall in love with her, she could marry him instead. Placing all of her hopes and dreams of the future on this risky gamble, Meiya departed to Yokohama. Due to her somewhat sheltered upbringing, initially Meiya seems a bit naive about the world, and solves most issues with the power of money, but slowly begins to learn the "sense of the common people" while spending time with Takeru, Sumika, and everyone else. Meiya has a very strong sense of righteousness, showing very adverse feelings to things like cheating, copying answers, using underhanded tactics such as taking hostages, and the like. She also happens to be very skilled with the sword in the a style called "Mugen Kidou," and this seems to apply to when she holds objects somewhat similar to a sword such as a lacrosse stick, and engaging in melee combat in things such as Valgern-On. During a heart to heart talk with Sumika, Meiya confesses that at first she did not see any of the girls that love Takeru as rivals, and she believed that her getting together with Takeru was nothing but predestined. Little by little, however, while getting to know them, she started understanding her mistake, and decided to behave more seriously about it. She is attended to by multiple members of the Mitsurugi staff, but the five most often seen include Tsukuyomi Mana, Kamiyo Tatsumi, Tomoe Yukino, and Ebisu Minagi, her personal attendants, as well Ichimonji Takahashi, her chauffeur. Unlimited History Like the other members of the 207th Training Unit, Meiya has a background she would rather not talk about. Out of all the cadets in the trainee squad, Meiya is by far the most talented in melee combat with things such as knives and swords. However, certain questions begin to pop up about her, such as why there is a Type-00R Takemikazuchi sitting in the hangar as a gift to her from the Japanese Shogunate, or why there is a detachment of the Japanese Imperial Royal Guard watching over her. Despite coming from a very different background than in Extra, and being more worldly and wise as a result, Meiya's core personality remains much the same. Incredibly righteous and noble, she often has conflicting feelings about her duty as a soldier and her duty to the Japanese people. Birth Koubuin Meiya was one of two twins born to the Regent House of Koubuin, but because of a superstitious belief that twins were an omen of bad luck, Meiya was separated from her sister at birth and given to the branch family Mitsurugi where she became Mitsurugi Meiya. The name "Meiya" was based on the Japanese character for "darkness", while her sister was called Yuuhi, based on the Japanese character for "light": Yuuhi would be the light, to be always seen and admired, while Meiya was to become the darkness, never seen unless necessary. Meiya was then destined to become a body double for Koubuin Yuuhi, a disposable political tool in other words. She spent her entire life under house arrest, living with Mitsurugi Raiden, where she spent every day training as a double for the Regent of Koubuin in all manners from sword fighting, etiquette, speech mannerisms, Shogi and anything else expected from the Shogun. Tsukuyomi Mana was later sent by the Yuuhi to further raise and train Meiya, and the two developed a very strong relationship. BETA Invasion In 1997, after the Ministry of Defence had made accurate estimations of the BETA invasion and how far they would push into Japan, Meiya was moved to Sendai for security reasons. At the same time, Mana was recalled from her guardianship of Meiya by Yuuhi and immediately returned to Kyoto. Mana then relayed a short message to the Koubuin family head telling her that the Mitsurugi girl had been safely moved. Meiya's sister feigned ignorance to who the individual was at first, but quietly she whispered her thanks to Mana as she departed the room. This invisible sibling bond was mutual between the twins. Despite having never met her sister, and always avoiding direct contact with her out of obligation, Meiya has a deep appreciation and understanding of her sister. Post-BETA Invasion After Yuuhi became the Shogun, and after Yokohoma Base was founded, Meiya was personally requested by the Shogun to join the base as a political hostage to prove the Empire of Japan's commitment to Alternative IV. Meiya agreed without hesitation, and found herself amongst other political hostages, Squad 207B. At Yokohoma base, Meiya noticed that almost everyone who saw her was stunned by her resemblance to the current Shogun and became extremely stiff or formal around her. She eventually grew accustomed to the different treatment she received and it became part of her life at the base. Together with Squad 207B she attempted to become an Eishi, but because they were too valuable as hostages, they were given harder exams than the other trainees to ensure their failure. Soon after their first failed exam, she was playing volleyball with her squad when one of the members accidentally launched the ball at a solider walking next to the XO of Yokohoma base. She went to make sure the Vice-commander was safe and was then introduced to a new recruit. Once Meiya had turned to face the unknown boy, he happily screamed "MEIYA!" with tears down his face and jumped at her, shocking her and sending her to the ground, thus setting the events of Muv Luv Unlimited in place. Alternative Causality Conductor Takeru's role as a CC causes information to flow from different universes into the one he's currently in. The more people interact with him in Alternative, the more specfific information related to them flows through Takeru and into them. In Meiya's case, her past interactions with Takeru in Unlimited flowed into her during Alternative, including all the emotions that come with those memories. This logically includes the years she spent as his lover in Earth and the years she spent as the mother of his child during the aftermath of Unlimited. Though a major plot consideration, the memories, regardless of content, were never a major part of the plot because Yuuko correctly predicted that the affected people would dismiss them as strange dreams. Even so, these flowed memories only serve to make Meiya and Squad 207's final fate even more tragic than it already was. Role In Muv-Luv Alternative, Meiya is roughly the same person as she is in Unlimited. However, her personal history and personality are fleshed out and developed further in the altered version of events. She plays a more prominent role in Alternative. After following a plan partly formed by Takeru, she acts as a body double for the Shogun and convinced a rebel leader to lay down his arms, and almost succeeded in ending an entire rebellion. Like in Unlimited, she grows to love and greatly admire Takeru as the events of Alternative take place. However she temporarily loses all her respect for him in a moment of anger when Takeru ignored all common sense and kept blaming himself for the events of the XM3 trial. This led to a dark twist in the two's relationship that caused Takeru to finally snap and escape the world of the BETA. Though immediately regretting her actions, she was too late in convincing Takeru to calm down. Although Takeru had run away from the Alternative universe, Kouzuki Yuko had informed her and remaining Valkyries that he was suffering from PTSD and that she had sent him on a "cruel mission to the front-lines" (while his mission assignment was a lie, it was still technically true since Takeru's premature return to Extra was a calculated gamble by Alternative Yuuko). Like the rest of the Squad, she feels a tremendous amount of guilt for leaving Takeru alone during the aftermath of the XM3 trials and, like them, she feels directly responsible for the events that happened afterwards. This guilt is amplified after learning that Takeru was suffering from PTSD. Although she was shocked by the events of the XM3 trials, she slowly regains herself and trains with the others harder than beforeYuuko's observation in Alternative manga. However she was piloting training units and was desperately trying to keep up the older Valkyrie's highly advanced Shiranui's, something Takeru later remarked must have caused her and the squad to feel a sense of inferiorityAlternative VN after Shirogane returns from Extra. Afterwards when Takeru returns from his "mission" she is the first to see him. She bursts into tears immediately and strikes him repeatedly for leaving without saying a word. Takeru is stunned that she would still cry for him despite what he said and did to her. The two's relationship grows even stronger than before, and Meiya grows to admire and love the boy even more than she ever did. However, Takeru found deep camaraderie with Meiya and, in his obliviousness, rips Meiya's heart apart by asking her to become his Noble Confidant, smiling all the while. Completely devastated, Meiya replies that reciprocating his feelings "will be difficult". Later Meiya grows worried once see spots Takeru walking alone with a strange girl.The girl was dismissed as an Yuuko assistant by Takeru, but to her horrorBased on her shocked face in the Alternative manga. You could replace this by stunned or shocked, but horror works well in this case, was later introudced as "Kagami Sumika", the friend Takeru had been searching for. After Takeru was cruelly rejected by the 00 Unit, Meiya decided to help him see through the 00 Unit's lies and helped the two repair their relationship rather than seize the opportunity to win his affection. Pre-Ouka, she suffers another blow to her heart when Takeru accidentally left his speakers on and openly flirted with his girlfriend. Unable to handle the pain, she shuts down the radio and silently (and politely) curses his cruelty. She is the last Valkyrie to remain alive during Ouka and interrupts Takeru's peace negotiation with the Superior. She attempts to self-destruct to save Takeru, but fails and is pinned down to the XG-70d's laser mouth by the Superior who begins to inject himself into her and take over her body. Losing all hope of survival, she breaks down in tears and confesses her feelings to Takeru and begs him to shoot her. Takeru however is unable to follow that out of sadness and because the XG-70d was drained of all power. The 00 Unit manages to rout all its remaining power (killing itself in the process) to power the XG-70d and Takeru finally, but with heavy regret, pulls the trigger and vaporizes both Meiya and the Superior down to the atom. In her final moments, she hallucinates an overpoweringly noble vision of her sister, and she dies smiling and at peace.Unlike the other four who got rekted by bombs, electricity and Tank class BETA and yet no one gives a f0ck about them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Skills and Abilities Her skills and abilities from Unlimited are unchanged. One deviation from Unlimited occurred during early stages of training. Where Meiya would once proudly fight Takeru head on with a sword in Unlimited, this time she chooses to combat him with a knife out of fear of losing in the one thing she had most confidence in (sword fighting). She still retains her skill as a fighter and excels in close quarters. She was promoted to Storm Vanguard ahead of the older more experienced Valkyries, further proving her skill. The Day After Meiya appeared near the end of Muv-Luv Unlimited The Day After Episode 01 as Koubuin Yuuhi, giving a speech to the Japanese citizens gathered for her arrival in Seattle. Later, it was confirmed that Meiya had actively taken on the identity of her sister where she fulfilled the role of a body double and played the role of the Shogun in her elder sibling's absence. What happened to Yuuhi was not spoken of but given the chaos of The Day, it was likely she either perished or was in hiding due to political turmoil in the aftermath of the civil war that occured in the days and weeks after Japan had formally resettled in Hawaii. Meiya remained a figurehead despite the government shakeup and, despite her superior rank and nobility to the rest in the Imperial Guard, had lost much of her standing in the faction as most have sided with Ikaruga Takatsugu. Her remaining servants included Tsukuyomi Maya, Yuuhi's original attendant and bodyguard and her three original attendants: Kamiyo Tatsumi, Tomoe Yukino, and Ebisu Minagi. They were fiercely loyal to the Shogun and still supported Meiya personally, despite her assuming the role and identity of Yuuhi. With her lack of influence in the Guard faction Meiya was forced to look elsewhere for support; which she later found in the Imperial Guard Army through members such as Jinguuji Marimo, and Tatsunami Hibiki. Hibiki in particular was made an example of by her as a promising member of the Japanese military for his selfless, humble attitude and his contributions to the safety of the common people. She came to rely greatly on his support as she prepared for troubling times in the future. Meiya's primary focus as Shogun was the improvement of living conditions for the people of Japan and the world over. To this end she invested greatly in a project that later resulted in the creation of a modernized Food Plant in Seattle that was entirely self-sufficient and was capable of creating enough food for both the American and Japanese population in the city. It was later made the target of a terrorist attack while she was touring the plant immediately prior to its full opening, but she managed to escape thanks to her attendants, Hibiki, and Marimo's intervention. Later, after the Four Country Conference, plans for additional mobile food plants and food exports were made with France and Canada as per the agreement of the newly signed COSMOPOLITAN plan. This aligned with Meiya's wish to see no one starve, regardless of their nationality; however, she was powerless to prevent the American and Japanese leadership from using the food plants as bargaining chips for the complete cooperation of the opposing alliance. During the JFK Hive battle, Meiya was kept apprised of the battle by her servant, Maya. She was especially keen on hearing any reports related to Shirogane Takeru, and prayed for his safety. Meiya expressed regret of the distance that had been built between them since the day they met, and mentally promised both herself and Takeru that she would continue to move forward and not dwell on the past for the sake of those she cared about. Quotes "You... You... You..." "You want to meet him again, don't you? Then you should say...'See you.' Not 'goodbye.'" "Don't underestimate humans!" "...Pull the trigger... Takeru..." Trivia *Because Unlimited Meiya was not allowed to grow up as a normal child, she is unfamiliar with children character's such as 'Chop-kun'. *Meiya's blood type is AB. *Her name, along with Kagami Sumika, Tamase Miki, and Yashiro Kasumi, appears to be a reference to the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan -- the sword, mirror, and jewel. Meiya represents the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, the grass-mowing sword of the Imperial regalia. *According to volume 12 of Ageku no Hate, age's fan club magazine, her hair seems to be inspired by an "A-P bazooka equipped Gundam." *Her behavior and mannerisms appear to have been modeled after Lafiel from Crest of the Stars. **As credit to her use of formal and archaic Japanese, Meiya refers to her sister Yuuhi as 'Aneue': a much more proper form of 'Onee-sama'. *Injures her (or her TSF's) ankle in every completed game she appears in. *Her katana's name is "Minaru Kamui." References Category:Characters Category:Extra Category:Unlimited Category:Alternative Category:Altered Fable Category:Supplement Category:Haruko Maniax Category:The Day After Category:Females